You are invited to participate in the Community Wishlist Survey
Starting on November 9th, the Community Tech team is inviting all Wikimedia contributors to submit proposals in our Community Wishlist Survey.
Community Tech is a new Wikimedia Foundation product team that’s dedicated to supporting core Wikimedia contributors with features and fixes that make curation and moderation more efficient. We want to work on projects that will help as many contributors as possible – and to reach that goal, we need a process that helps the most important needs rise to the top, in a way that’s inclusive, open, and fair.
The Community Wishlist Survey gives everybody the opportunity to propose fixes and solutions and determine which ideas have the most support. It’s an exciting (and slightly terrifying) prospect.
Here’s how it works: For two weeks, starting November 9th, contributors can come to the Community Wishlist Survey on Meta-Wiki, and post their ideas for projects that will directly benefit the core community.
We’re encouraging people to participate from any project and any language. Volunteer translators have been helping us translate the survey announcement into as many languages as we can get. Once people start submitting proposals, we’ll be canvassing for people to help translate proposals into English.
The proposals are posted on a wiki page, and everyone is invited to discuss the proposals as they come in – to ask questions, add ideas, and help to make the good proposals better.
The proposal phase ends after two weeks, and then the Community Tech team will sort the ideas into broad categories, merge duplicate proposals, and post the ideas for community vote.
The voting phase will also run for two weeks, from November 30th to December 14th. During this time, Wikimedia contributors can add votes of support on any of the proposals that they find worthwhile. We’re encouraging people to continue discussing the ideas during the voting phase, but we’re only going to count support votes.
At the end of this process, we’ll have a prioritized list of projects to work on. The proposals with the highest votes will become the Community Tech team’s top priority backlog to investigate and address. We’re also working with Community Engagement’s Developer Relations team, who will use this backlog when volunteer developers want to find new projects to work on.
The inspiration for this survey comes from Wikimedia Germany’s Community Tech team – “Technischer Communitybedarf”, or TCB – who have run successful Community Wishlist Surveys in 2013 and 2015. We’ll be the first team to encourage cross-project and multi-language participation in a survey like this, which should present some brand-new challenges that I’m sure we’ll discover along the way.
I hope you’ll join us over the next several weeks on the Community Wishlist Survey page and contribute your ideas and your opinions. See you there!
- Danny Horn is a Product Manager on the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team.
Wikimedia Foundation finances; Superprotect is gone
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2014–2015 end-of-year financial report
On October 30, the Wikimedia Foundation posted its financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2015, as audited by KPMG.
As expected, the figures show that the Foundation is in better financial health than ever. The growth in revenue (up 44.5% over the year before) and assets (up 45.5%) far outstripped growth in expenditure (up 14.6%).
Here is an overview of the most important figures (rounded):
- Net assets at end of year:
- $77.8M
- up $24.3M from $53.5M
- Current assets include:
- $35.2M in cash and cash equivalents
- $29.0M in short-term investments
- Total support and revenue:
- $75.8M
- up $23.3M from $52.5M
- Total expenses:
- $52.6M
- up $6.7M from $45.9M
- Main expense items:
- Salaries and wages: $26.0M (up from $20.0M)
- Professional service expenses: $7.6M (up from $7.1M)
- Awards and grants: $4.5M (down from $5.7M)
- Other operating expenses: $4.4M (up from $3.9M)
- Depreciation and amortization: $2.7M (almost unchanged)
- Donations processing expenses: $2.5M (up from $1.5M)
- Travel and conferences: $2.3M (up from $2.0M)
- Internet hosting: $2.0M (down from $2.5M)
As can be seen, the biggest expense item is salaries and wages, a reflection of the fact that the Foundation now has the money to employ over 280 paid staff (up from around 225 this time last year, and up from 11 in 2007). Staff grew by around 35% in 2014–15, 23% in 2013–14, 22% in 2012–13, 53% in 2011–12, and 56% in 2010–11.
Internet hosting, the Foundation's main expense item in its early years, now costs less than donations processing, and less than travel and conferences.
As the Foundation prepares for its year-end fundraiser, mailing-list debates about the appropriateness of "scary" fundraising banners asking readers of Wikipedia to donate money to "keep it online" continue, based on the fact that the Foundation is far better off today than it has been at any other point in its history, and most of the money spent serves other purposes than merely keeping Wikipedia online (see previous Signpost coverage: 1, 2). The Foundation has taken nearly a quarter billion dollars over the past five years.
Even so, the Foundation is concerned about its long-term financial prospects: the number of page views and unique visitors is in decline, as is Wikimedia projects' reach. Desktop views of the English Wikipedia, the main source of donations in the annual year-end fundraiser, are particularly strongly affected.
The Foundation's 2015–2016 annual plan calls for a 17% growth in budget and revenues of $73M (including $5M to start an endowment), with a "stretch goal" to exceed the fundraising target by 20%, equivalent to a revenue total of around $88M. AK
Superprotect is gone
The Wikimedia Foundation announced on November 5 that the controversial "Superprotect" feature has been removed from Wikimedia servers.
| “ | Superprotect [1] was introduced by the Wikimedia Foundation to resolve a product development disagreement. We have not used it for resolving a dispute since. Consequently, today we are removing Superprotect from Wikimedia servers.
Without Superprotect, a symbolic point of tension is resolved. However, we still have the underlying problem of disagreement and consequent delays at the product deployment phase. We need to become better software partners, work together towards better products, and ship better features faster. The collaboration between the WMF and the communities depends on mutual trust and constructive criticism. We need to improve Wikimedia mechanisms to build consensus, include more voices, and resolve disputes. There is a first draft of an updated Product Development Process [2] that will guide the work of the WMF Engineering and Product teams.[3] It stresses the need for community feedback throughout the process, but particularly in the early phases of development. More feedback earlier will allow us to incorporate community-driven improvements and address potential controversy while plans and software are most flexible. We welcome the feedback of technical and non-technical contributors. Check the Q&A for details.[4] |
” |
As one thousand of us requested, Superprotect has been removed
11 November 2015
Wikimedia Foundation finances; Superprotect is gone
4 November 2015
Superprotect, one year later; a contentious RfA
12 August 2015
Media Viewer—Wikimedia's emotional roller-coaster
27 August 2014
Media Viewer controversy spreads to German Wikipedia
13 August 2014
Superprotect was a special level of protection designed to restrict editing of certain wiki pages (in particular software configuration files) to Wikimedia Foundation employees in the Staff global group. It was implemented on August 10, 2014, and used the same day to stop a volunteer administrator on the German Wikipedia from disabling the new Media Viewer feature, which, in its original form, had attracted widespread criticism on both the German and English Wikipedias.
This followed a similar power struggle between the Foundation and its volunteer community in September 2013, when Kww, a volunteer administrator in the English Wikipedia, successfully implemented community consensus to return another software feature much criticised at the time, the VisualEditor, to opt-in status in the English Wikipedia, overriding the Foundation (see previous Signpost coverage).
The introduction of the Superprotect feature, designed to prevent a repeat of this scenario in the case of the Media Viewer, elicited widespread community protest; an open letter to the Foundation condemning the measure was signed by nearly 1,000 Wikimedia volunteers, a record in Wikimedia history.
Speaking at the November 2015 WMF Metrics meeting, executive director Lila Tretikov said:
| “ | We wanted to remove Superprotect. Superprotect set up a precedent of mistrust, and this is something that was really important for us to remove, to at least come back to the baseline of a relationship where we're working together, we're one community, to create a better process. To make sure that we can move together faster, and everybody is part of that process, and everybody is part of that conversation, not just us here at WMF. | ” |
The move was widely welcomed by volunteers and Foundation employees.
Addressing a question as to whether Superprotect had been completely removed from the MediaWiki software underlying Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites, the Foundation's lead software architect Brion Vibber provided the following clarification on the Wikimedia-l mailing list:
| “ | There is no code specific to "superprotect"; it's the exact same MediaWiki permissions/protection system that lets users in the 'sysop' group override the ability of anonymous or regular users to edit particular pages. Technically nothing has changed – particular protection levels can be added and removed via configuration at any time if they are needed.
In other words – ignore the superprotect red herring! Please look at the documentation of the product process and give feedback on that, it's much, MUCH more important: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMF_Product_Development_Process |
” |
AK
Brief notes
- Wikimedia Serbia includes training seminars for teachers: Along with regular education program activities for high school and university students in Serbia, Wikimedia Serbia has now added Wikipedia training for more than 100 teachers in three Serbian cities. The training, which will help teachers better understand the use of Wikipedia in the classroom, is a recognized course option in professional development training that is mandatory for teachers in Serbia. F
- Doteli Wikipedia keeps growing: The number of Wikipedia articles written in Doteli is growing. Doteli is a language spoken in the far western and mid-western regions of Nepal, and some parts of India. With more than 1,000 articles now, and an active team of editors keeping them up to date, the minimum requirements to start up a new Wikipedia language edition have been met. F
- Sad news from the Polish Wikipedia: The Signpost has learned that Belissarius recently passed away. A major contributor to the Polish Wikipedia, Belissarius made more than 100,000 edits to his home wiki, as well as over 1,000 edits each to Commons and the English Wikipedia. An activist, journalist and historian, he had been an editor of the Chicago-based Polish Daily News (Dziennik Związkowy), which has published an obituary ( Google translation). AK
- Terry Gilbey is leaving the WMF: Lila Tretikov has announced that Terry Gilbey, the Foundation's Interim Chief Operating Officer this year, will be leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. Vice President of Human Resources Boryana Dineva is joining the C-level team; the search for a Chief Financial Officer is still ongoing. AK
- New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, Yamaguchi先生 (Nov. 5). AK
Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov: propaganda myth or history?
Armenian site panorama.am reports (Nov. 6) on the deletion of the biography of Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov in the Russian and French Wikipedias. The historicity of Jabrayilov, described as a "celebrated Azerbaijani activist of the French Resistance" and a personal acquaintance of Charles de Gaulle in the English Wikipedia, has been questioned, and the English article currently includes both a hoax warning and a (sourced!) subsection pointing out that the article's equivalents in the French and Russian Wikipedias were deleted.
There is not much love lost between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the panorama.am article seems not devoid of glee when it reports that
| “ | Jabrayilov’s story is embedded in the Azerbaijan national narrative, and it is too painful to part from such myths. | ” |
Clearly, opinions differ as to whether Jabrayilov is a historical figure or a Soviet propaganda creation; a related discussion on the English biography's talk page has been ongoing for some months, at a very leisurely pace. AK
Media reacts to five million article milestone
Last week, the English Wikipedia hit five million articles with Cas Liber's article Persoonia terminalis, a shrub native to eastern Australia. The A.V. Club remarked:
| “ | some kind of Australian shrub that will now be significantly more famous than it probably should be. Obviously, this whole thing would be a bit more exciting if the five-millionth article had been on something cool like the 1995 anime classic Ghost In The Shell, Take 5 candy bars, or The A.V. Club, but whatever. | ” |
Some media outlets noted that Wikipedia is a work in progress. The Daily Telegraph noted that " Wikipedia's 5 million articles still cover less than 5 per cent of all human knowledge". Quartz wrote that those five million articles " cover just a tiny sliver of all human knowledge". G
In brief
- #bencarsonwikipedia: Quartz reports (Nov. 6) on a new Twitter meme prompted by the revelation of US Presidential candidate Ben Carson's bizarre and inaccurate theory that the Egyptian pyramids were constructed by the Biblical patriarch Joseph as grain storage. (It is, of course, the universal consensus of historians and archaeologists, and also written by the ancient Egyptians themselves, that the pyramids were tombs of the pharaohs.) Twitter users used the hashtag #bencarsonwikipedia to post equally inaccurate ideas, such as "The Great Wall of China was originally created as an aquarium for giant eels" and "A pony must eat 57 apples before it becomes a horse." G
- Wikipedia has some fascinating yet far-fetched stories: Following Wikipedia's five millionth article, a group of Wikipedians and Wikipedia users picked out some of the most informative, entertaining or trivial articles in the encyclopaedia. The list in the Washington Post (Nov. 5) ranges from sexually active popes to the ten-foot " Demon Cat" to extreme ironing. LY
- Wikipedia gets a toilet as a sign of appreciation: Wikipedia fan and craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, has donated a toilet to the Wikimedia Foundation, as reported in the Huffington Post (Nov. 4). Newmark, who believes Wikipedia is a "big deal", donated a third toilet to the headquarters' gender-neutral bathroom. "I am a proud supporter of Wikipedia and I encourage you to make donations to support their work too." LY
- Wikipedia's "Wiki Loves Africa" contest enters its second year, focusing on culture and fashion: The contest runs from October 1 to November 30, as allafrica.com reports (Nov. 2). Wiki Loves Africa is an annual competition that invites people from across Africa and beyond to celebrate the diversity, richness and complexity of this continent. Every year, the competition has a new theme – with this year's theme being Wiki Loves Africa Cultural Fashion and Adornment. The new Galaxy Tab S tablet computer is one of many prizes for the winning contestants. F, LY
- 12 commandments of Wikipedia: CIO magazine presents (Oct. 28) six dos and six don'ts that people, organizations and brands tempted to make edits to Wikipedia pages related to them should observe. AK
Death, the Dead, and Spectres are abroad
It's Halloween again, and Wikipedia viewers are certainly in the, ahem, spirit. Not only has the holiday topped the list as it does every year, but three articles with the words "dead" or "death" appear in the top 10, alongside a movie called Spectre. In addition, and in keeping with the theme of honouring the dead, film star Maureen O'Hara gets a decent send-off.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of October 25 to 31, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Halloween 
1,775,219 
My personal favourite holiday tops the list again with almost exactly the same numbers as last year. 2 Black hole 
965,751 
This article's inclusion is becoming increasingly problematic, as it is likely a cuckoo's egg. We should have a definitive answer from the analytics people by next week, where it could well be shunted to the exclusions list. 3 Spectre (2015 film) 
794,056 
The British are not known as titans of the filmmaking world, but they have staked their claim with this latest in their defining James Bond series. The budget, topping $300 million, makes this the most expensive film ever made without the words "Pirates of the Caribbean" in front of it. After the last Bond film made over a billion dollars, it seems the proudly British producers have confidence enough to stand apart from Hollywood, releasing the film in six national territories- but not the US. The strategy has worked; the film has made over $80 million so far, including a record-breaking $64 million in its native country. 4 Adele 
757,752 
The popular singer's new album 25 will be released on November 20. The first single, " Hello", debuted on October 23. As of this writing, the video for "Hello" already has nearly 200 million views. The surge in Wikipedia views was also likely from Spectre hype, as audiences remembered how much better her Bond theme was. 5 Hell in a Cell (2015)
746,518 
WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime took place on October 25, 2015 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. 6 The Walking Dead (TV series)
547,272 
Likely back on the list thanks to the shock death of a major character took the Internet by storm. 7 Deaths in 2015 
542,895 
The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550 thousand on average, apparently heedless of who actually died. As such, it seldom makes the top ten except in low-traffic weeks, like this one. 8 Maureen O'Hara
497,163 
One of the last stars of Hollywood's golden age, the flame-haired "Queen of Technicolor" and frequent leading lady of John Wayne died this week at the age of 95. 9 Day of the Dead
480,680 
Mexico's carnival of the cadaverous is the living dream of any kid who ever wished Halloween could last three days. 10 The Walking Dead (season 6)
460,509 See #6.
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Christianity, music, and cricket
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Eight featured articles were promoted this week.
- Arnold Bax ( nominated by Tim riley) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist.
- Assassination of Spencer Perceval ( nominated by Brianboulton) occurred at about 5:15 pm on Monday 11 May 1812. Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was shot and killed in the lobby of the House of Commons in London. His assailant was John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant with a grievance against the government. Bellingham was detained and, four days after the murder, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Newgate Prison on 18 May 1812.
- Frank Jenner ( nominated by Neelix) was an Australian evangelist. His signature approach to evangelism was to ask people on George Street, Sydney, "If you died within 24 hours, where would you be in eternity? Heaven or hell?"
- Hebron Church (Intermont, West Virginia) ( nominated by West Virginian) is a mid-19th century Lutheran church in Intermont, Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia.
- "Ice" (The X-Files) ( nominated by Grapple X) is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, which premiered on the Fox network on November 5, 1993. It was directed by David Nutter and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. The debut broadcast of "Ice" was watched by 10 million viewers in 6.2 million households and received positive reviews from critics, who praised its tense atmosphere.
- Schmerber v. California ( nominated by Notecardforfree) was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States wherein the Court clarified the application of the Fourth Amendment's protection against warrantless searches and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination for searches that intrude into the human body.
- Yugoslav submarine Nebojša ( nominated by Peacemaker67) was the second of the Hrabri-class diesel-electric submarines built by the Vickers-Armstrong Naval Yard on the River Tyne in the United Kingdom, for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) and was launched in 1927. Her design was based on that of the British L-class submarine of World War I, and she was built using parts originally assembled for a Royal Navy L-class submarine that was never built. She was armed with six bow-mounted 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes, two 102 mm (4 in) guns and one machine gun, and could dive to 60 metres (200 ft).
- Æthelwulf ( nominated by Dudley Miles) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.
Featured lists
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Six featured lists were promoted this week.
- List of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club grounds ( nominated by AssociateAffiliate and ChrisTheDude) Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire, is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship. Gloucestershire have played home matches at eighteen different grounds.
- List of international cricket centuries by Ian Bell ( nominated by Ytfc23 and The Rambling Man) Ian Bell is a cricketer who represents the England cricket team. He has scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test and One Day International (ODI) matches on 22 and 4 occasions respectively. As of August 2015, he has played 115 Tests and 161 ODIs for England, scoring 7,569 and 5,416 runs respectively.
- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium ( nominated by Ssven2) M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (MAC), also known as the Chepauk Stadium or simply Chepauk due its location in the city's locality of Chepauk, is a sports ground in Chennai, India that has hosted international cricket matches along with provincial games. As of September 2015, 30 bowlers have taken 47 Test match five-wicket hauls and two bowlers have taken five-wicket hauls during ODIs at this ground.
- List of international goals scored by Thierry Henry ( nominated by The Rambling Man) Thierry Henry is a retired French international footballer. During his international career he played 123 games for France in which he scored 51 goals. As of October 2015 he is France's top scorer and second in the list of appearances for his country.
- List of local nature reserves in Somerset ( nominated by Rodw) There are 40 local nature reserves in Somerset recognised by Natural England. The smallest is Wellington Basins, which covers 0.53 hectares (1.3 acres) of small ponds and surrounding grassland and woodland. The largest, covering 129.56 hectares (320.1 acres), is Weston Woods on Worlebury Hill, which includes Worlebury Camp Iron Age hill fort.
- List of songs recorded by Lady Gaga ( nominated by FrB.TG, Calvin999, GagaNutella, IndianBio, and SNUGGUMS) American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga has recorded material for four studio albums and three extended plays (EP), and has been featured on songs on other artists' respective albums.
Featured portals
One featured portal was promoted this week.
- Latin music ( nominated by Magiciandude) "Latin music" (Musica latina in Spanish and Portuguese) is a catch-all term used by the music industry to described any music in Spanish mainly from Latin America and Spain regardless of genre.
Featured pictures
Fifty-two featured pictures were promoted this week.-
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Princess of Asturias Awards 2015 ceremony
Wikipedia received the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for global cooperation (see previous Signpost coverage). Here are some photos from the ceremony on October 23.
Tech news in brief
The Tech News weekly summaries help you monitor recent software changes likely to impact you and your fellow Wikimedians. Subscribe, contribute and give feedback.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- Superprotect has been removed. [1]
- You can now switch between the wikitext editor and the visual editor without saving. You will not lose the changes you have made. [2]
JSON dumps of the production search indexes are now available. They can be imported to Elasticsearch.
[3]
Problems
- Some translations for the Thanks and Echo extensions were missing. Translators have been asked to help and this should be solved soon. [4]
Changes this week
- Thumbnails of 16-bit TIFF files will be displayed properly. Before, this didn't work. [5]
The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 10. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 11. It will be on all Wikipedias from November 12 (
calendar).
Meetings
- You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
10 November at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Future changes
- A new tool to navigate through diff pages is being developed. You can test it out and give feedback. [6]
- The options on Special:Watchlist will look slightly different. [7]
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
You are invited to participate in the Community Wishlist Survey
Starting on November 9th, the Community Tech team is inviting all Wikimedia contributors to submit proposals in our Community Wishlist Survey.
Community Tech is a new Wikimedia Foundation product team that’s dedicated to supporting core Wikimedia contributors with features and fixes that make curation and moderation more efficient. We want to work on projects that will help as many contributors as possible – and to reach that goal, we need a process that helps the most important needs rise to the top, in a way that’s inclusive, open, and fair.
The Community Wishlist Survey gives everybody the opportunity to propose fixes and solutions and determine which ideas have the most support. It’s an exciting (and slightly terrifying) prospect.
Here’s how it works: For two weeks, starting November 9th, contributors can come to the Community Wishlist Survey on Meta-Wiki, and post their ideas for projects that will directly benefit the core community.
We’re encouraging people to participate from any project and any language. Volunteer translators have been helping us translate the survey announcement into as many languages as we can get. Once people start submitting proposals, we’ll be canvassing for people to help translate proposals into English.
The proposals are posted on a wiki page, and everyone is invited to discuss the proposals as they come in – to ask questions, add ideas, and help to make the good proposals better.
The proposal phase ends after two weeks, and then the Community Tech team will sort the ideas into broad categories, merge duplicate proposals, and post the ideas for community vote.
The voting phase will also run for two weeks, from November 30th to December 14th. During this time, Wikimedia contributors can add votes of support on any of the proposals that they find worthwhile. We’re encouraging people to continue discussing the ideas during the voting phase, but we’re only going to count support votes.
At the end of this process, we’ll have a prioritized list of projects to work on. The proposals with the highest votes will become the Community Tech team’s top priority backlog to investigate and address. We’re also working with Community Engagement’s Developer Relations team, who will use this backlog when volunteer developers want to find new projects to work on.
The inspiration for this survey comes from Wikimedia Germany’s Community Tech team – “Technischer Communitybedarf”, or TCB – who have run successful Community Wishlist Surveys in 2013 and 2015. We’ll be the first team to encourage cross-project and multi-language participation in a survey like this, which should present some brand-new challenges that I’m sure we’ll discover along the way.
I hope you’ll join us over the next several weeks on the Community Wishlist Survey page and contribute your ideas and your opinions. See you there!
- Danny Horn is a Product Manager on the Wikimedia Foundation's Community Tech team.
Wikimedia Foundation finances; Superprotect is gone
2014–2015 end-of-year financial report
On October 30, the Wikimedia Foundation posted its financial statements for the year ended June 30, 2015, as audited by KPMG.
As expected, the figures show that the Foundation is in better financial health than ever. The growth in revenue (up 44.5% over the year before) and assets (up 45.5%) far outstripped growth in expenditure (up 14.6%).
Here is an overview of the most important figures (rounded):
- Net assets at end of year:
- $77.8M
- up $24.3M from $53.5M
- Current assets include:
- $35.2M in cash and cash equivalents
- $29.0M in short-term investments
- Total support and revenue:
- $75.8M
- up $23.3M from $52.5M
- Total expenses:
- $52.6M
- up $6.7M from $45.9M
- Main expense items:
- Salaries and wages: $26.0M (up from $20.0M)
- Professional service expenses: $7.6M (up from $7.1M)
- Awards and grants: $4.5M (down from $5.7M)
- Other operating expenses: $4.4M (up from $3.9M)
- Depreciation and amortization: $2.7M (almost unchanged)
- Donations processing expenses: $2.5M (up from $1.5M)
- Travel and conferences: $2.3M (up from $2.0M)
- Internet hosting: $2.0M (down from $2.5M)
As can be seen, the biggest expense item is salaries and wages, a reflection of the fact that the Foundation now has the money to employ over 280 paid staff (up from around 225 this time last year, and up from 11 in 2007). Staff grew by around 35% in 2014–15, 23% in 2013–14, 22% in 2012–13, 53% in 2011–12, and 56% in 2010–11.
Internet hosting, the Foundation's main expense item in its early years, now costs less than donations processing, and less than travel and conferences.
As the Foundation prepares for its year-end fundraiser, mailing-list debates about the appropriateness of "scary" fundraising banners asking readers of Wikipedia to donate money to "keep it online" continue, based on the fact that the Foundation is far better off today than it has been at any other point in its history, and most of the money spent serves other purposes than merely keeping Wikipedia online (see previous Signpost coverage: 1, 2). The Foundation has taken nearly a quarter billion dollars over the past five years.
Even so, the Foundation is concerned about its long-term financial prospects: the number of page views and unique visitors is in decline, as is Wikimedia projects' reach. Desktop views of the English Wikipedia, the main source of donations in the annual year-end fundraiser, are particularly strongly affected.
The Foundation's 2015–2016 annual plan calls for a 17% growth in budget and revenues of $73M (including $5M to start an endowment), with a "stretch goal" to exceed the fundraising target by 20%, equivalent to a revenue total of around $88M. AK
Superprotect is gone
The Wikimedia Foundation announced on November 5 that the controversial "Superprotect" feature has been removed from Wikimedia servers.
| “ | Superprotect [1] was introduced by the Wikimedia Foundation to resolve a product development disagreement. We have not used it for resolving a dispute since. Consequently, today we are removing Superprotect from Wikimedia servers.
Without Superprotect, a symbolic point of tension is resolved. However, we still have the underlying problem of disagreement and consequent delays at the product deployment phase. We need to become better software partners, work together towards better products, and ship better features faster. The collaboration between the WMF and the communities depends on mutual trust and constructive criticism. We need to improve Wikimedia mechanisms to build consensus, include more voices, and resolve disputes. There is a first draft of an updated Product Development Process [2] that will guide the work of the WMF Engineering and Product teams.[3] It stresses the need for community feedback throughout the process, but particularly in the early phases of development. More feedback earlier will allow us to incorporate community-driven improvements and address potential controversy while plans and software are most flexible. We welcome the feedback of technical and non-technical contributors. Check the Q&A for details.[4] |
” |
As one thousand of us requested, Superprotect has been removed
11 November 2015
Wikimedia Foundation finances; Superprotect is gone
4 November 2015
Superprotect, one year later; a contentious RfA
12 August 2015
Media Viewer—Wikimedia's emotional roller-coaster
27 August 2014
Media Viewer controversy spreads to German Wikipedia
13 August 2014
Superprotect was a special level of protection designed to restrict editing of certain wiki pages (in particular software configuration files) to Wikimedia Foundation employees in the Staff global group. It was implemented on August 10, 2014, and used the same day to stop a volunteer administrator on the German Wikipedia from disabling the new Media Viewer feature, which, in its original form, had attracted widespread criticism on both the German and English Wikipedias.
This followed a similar power struggle between the Foundation and its volunteer community in September 2013, when Kww, a volunteer administrator in the English Wikipedia, successfully implemented community consensus to return another software feature much criticised at the time, the VisualEditor, to opt-in status in the English Wikipedia, overriding the Foundation (see previous Signpost coverage).
The introduction of the Superprotect feature, designed to prevent a repeat of this scenario in the case of the Media Viewer, elicited widespread community protest; an open letter to the Foundation condemning the measure was signed by nearly 1,000 Wikimedia volunteers, a record in Wikimedia history.
Speaking at the November 2015 WMF Metrics meeting, executive director Lila Tretikov said:
| “ | We wanted to remove Superprotect. Superprotect set up a precedent of mistrust, and this is something that was really important for us to remove, to at least come back to the baseline of a relationship where we're working together, we're one community, to create a better process. To make sure that we can move together faster, and everybody is part of that process, and everybody is part of that conversation, not just us here at WMF. | ” |
The move was widely welcomed by volunteers and Foundation employees.
Addressing a question as to whether Superprotect had been completely removed from the MediaWiki software underlying Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites, the Foundation's lead software architect Brion Vibber provided the following clarification on the Wikimedia-l mailing list:
| “ | There is no code specific to "superprotect"; it's the exact same MediaWiki permissions/protection system that lets users in the 'sysop' group override the ability of anonymous or regular users to edit particular pages. Technically nothing has changed – particular protection levels can be added and removed via configuration at any time if they are needed.
In other words – ignore the superprotect red herring! Please look at the documentation of the product process and give feedback on that, it's much, MUCH more important: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/WMF_Product_Development_Process |
” |
AK
Brief notes
- Wikimedia Serbia includes training seminars for teachers: Along with regular education program activities for high school and university students in Serbia, Wikimedia Serbia has now added Wikipedia training for more than 100 teachers in three Serbian cities. The training, which will help teachers better understand the use of Wikipedia in the classroom, is a recognized course option in professional development training that is mandatory for teachers in Serbia. F
- Doteli Wikipedia keeps growing: The number of Wikipedia articles written in Doteli is growing. Doteli is a language spoken in the far western and mid-western regions of Nepal, and some parts of India. With more than 1,000 articles now, and an active team of editors keeping them up to date, the minimum requirements to start up a new Wikipedia language edition have been met. F
- Sad news from the Polish Wikipedia: The Signpost has learned that Belissarius recently passed away. A major contributor to the Polish Wikipedia, Belissarius made more than 100,000 edits to his home wiki, as well as over 1,000 edits each to Commons and the English Wikipedia. An activist, journalist and historian, he had been an editor of the Chicago-based Polish Daily News (Dziennik Związkowy), which has published an obituary ( Google translation). AK
- Terry Gilbey is leaving the WMF: Lila Tretikov has announced that Terry Gilbey, the Foundation's Interim Chief Operating Officer this year, will be leaving the Wikimedia Foundation. Vice President of Human Resources Boryana Dineva is joining the C-level team; the search for a Chief Financial Officer is still ongoing. AK
- New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrator, Yamaguchi先生 (Nov. 5). AK
Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov: propaganda myth or history?
Armenian site panorama.am reports (Nov. 6) on the deletion of the biography of Ahmadiyya Jabrayilov in the Russian and French Wikipedias. The historicity of Jabrayilov, described as a "celebrated Azerbaijani activist of the French Resistance" and a personal acquaintance of Charles de Gaulle in the English Wikipedia, has been questioned, and the English article currently includes both a hoax warning and a (sourced!) subsection pointing out that the article's equivalents in the French and Russian Wikipedias were deleted.
There is not much love lost between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and the panorama.am article seems not devoid of glee when it reports that
| “ | Jabrayilov’s story is embedded in the Azerbaijan national narrative, and it is too painful to part from such myths. | ” |
Clearly, opinions differ as to whether Jabrayilov is a historical figure or a Soviet propaganda creation; a related discussion on the English biography's talk page has been ongoing for some months, at a very leisurely pace. AK
Media reacts to five million article milestone
Last week, the English Wikipedia hit five million articles with Cas Liber's article Persoonia terminalis, a shrub native to eastern Australia. The A.V. Club remarked:
| “ | some kind of Australian shrub that will now be significantly more famous than it probably should be. Obviously, this whole thing would be a bit more exciting if the five-millionth article had been on something cool like the 1995 anime classic Ghost In The Shell, Take 5 candy bars, or The A.V. Club, but whatever. | ” |
Some media outlets noted that Wikipedia is a work in progress. The Daily Telegraph noted that " Wikipedia's 5 million articles still cover less than 5 per cent of all human knowledge". Quartz wrote that those five million articles " cover just a tiny sliver of all human knowledge". G
In brief
- #bencarsonwikipedia: Quartz reports (Nov. 6) on a new Twitter meme prompted by the revelation of US Presidential candidate Ben Carson's bizarre and inaccurate theory that the Egyptian pyramids were constructed by the Biblical patriarch Joseph as grain storage. (It is, of course, the universal consensus of historians and archaeologists, and also written by the ancient Egyptians themselves, that the pyramids were tombs of the pharaohs.) Twitter users used the hashtag #bencarsonwikipedia to post equally inaccurate ideas, such as "The Great Wall of China was originally created as an aquarium for giant eels" and "A pony must eat 57 apples before it becomes a horse." G
- Wikipedia has some fascinating yet far-fetched stories: Following Wikipedia's five millionth article, a group of Wikipedians and Wikipedia users picked out some of the most informative, entertaining or trivial articles in the encyclopaedia. The list in the Washington Post (Nov. 5) ranges from sexually active popes to the ten-foot " Demon Cat" to extreme ironing. LY
- Wikipedia gets a toilet as a sign of appreciation: Wikipedia fan and craigslist founder, Craig Newmark, has donated a toilet to the Wikimedia Foundation, as reported in the Huffington Post (Nov. 4). Newmark, who believes Wikipedia is a "big deal", donated a third toilet to the headquarters' gender-neutral bathroom. "I am a proud supporter of Wikipedia and I encourage you to make donations to support their work too." LY
- Wikipedia's "Wiki Loves Africa" contest enters its second year, focusing on culture and fashion: The contest runs from October 1 to November 30, as allafrica.com reports (Nov. 2). Wiki Loves Africa is an annual competition that invites people from across Africa and beyond to celebrate the diversity, richness and complexity of this continent. Every year, the competition has a new theme – with this year's theme being Wiki Loves Africa Cultural Fashion and Adornment. The new Galaxy Tab S tablet computer is one of many prizes for the winning contestants. F, LY
- 12 commandments of Wikipedia: CIO magazine presents (Oct. 28) six dos and six don'ts that people, organizations and brands tempted to make edits to Wikipedia pages related to them should observe. AK
Death, the Dead, and Spectres are abroad
It's Halloween again, and Wikipedia viewers are certainly in the, ahem, spirit. Not only has the holiday topped the list as it does every year, but three articles with the words "dead" or "death" appear in the top 10, alongside a movie called Spectre. In addition, and in keeping with the theme of honouring the dead, film star Maureen O'Hara gets a decent send-off.
For the full top-25 list, see WP:TOP25. See this section for an explanation of any exclusions. For a list of the most edited articles of the week, see here.
As prepared by Serendipodous, for the week of October 25 to 31, the 10 most popular articles on Wikipedia, as determined from the report of the most viewed pages, were:
Rank Article Class Views Image Notes 1 Halloween
1,775,219 My personal favourite holiday tops the list again with almost exactly the same numbers as last year. 2 Black hole
965,751 This article's inclusion is becoming increasingly problematic, as it is likely a cuckoo's egg. We should have a definitive answer from the analytics people by next week, where it could well be shunted to the exclusions list. 3 Spectre (2015 film)
794,056 The British are not known as titans of the filmmaking world, but they have staked their claim with this latest in their defining James Bond series. The budget, topping $300 million, makes this the most expensive film ever made without the words "Pirates of the Caribbean" in front of it. After the last Bond film made over a billion dollars, it seems the proudly British producers have confidence enough to stand apart from Hollywood, releasing the film in six national territories- but not the US. The strategy has worked; the film has made over $80 million so far, including a record-breaking $64 million in its native country. 4 Adele
757,752 The popular singer's new album 25 will be released on November 20. The first single, " Hello", debuted on October 23. As of this writing, the video for "Hello" already has nearly 200 million views. The surge in Wikipedia views was also likely from Spectre hype, as audiences remembered how much better her Bond theme was. 5 Hell in a Cell (2015)
746,518 WWE's latest pay-per-view pantomime took place on October 25, 2015 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. 6 The Walking Dead (TV series)
547,272 Likely back on the list thanks to the shock death of a major character took the Internet by storm. 7 Deaths in 2015
542,895 The viewing figures for this article have been remarkably constant; fluctuating week to week between 450 and 550 thousand on average, apparently heedless of who actually died. As such, it seldom makes the top ten except in low-traffic weeks, like this one. 8 Maureen O'Hara
497,163 One of the last stars of Hollywood's golden age, the flame-haired "Queen of Technicolor" and frequent leading lady of John Wayne died this week at the age of 95. 9 Day of the Dead
480,680 Mexico's carnival of the cadaverous is the living dream of any kid who ever wished Halloween could last three days. 10 The Walking Dead (season 6)
460,509 See #6.
Christianity, music, and cricket
Text may be adapted from the respective articles and lists; see their page histories for attribution.
Featured articles
Eight featured articles were promoted this week.
- Arnold Bax ( nominated by Tim riley) was an English composer, poet, and author. His prolific output includes songs, choral music, chamber pieces, and solo piano works, but he is best known for his orchestral music. In addition to a series of symphonic poems he wrote seven symphonies and was for a time widely regarded as the leading British symphonist.
- Assassination of Spencer Perceval ( nominated by Brianboulton) occurred at about 5:15 pm on Monday 11 May 1812. Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, was shot and killed in the lobby of the House of Commons in London. His assailant was John Bellingham, a Liverpool merchant with a grievance against the government. Bellingham was detained and, four days after the murder, was tried, convicted and sentenced to death. He was hanged at Newgate Prison on 18 May 1812.
- Frank Jenner ( nominated by Neelix) was an Australian evangelist. His signature approach to evangelism was to ask people on George Street, Sydney, "If you died within 24 hours, where would you be in eternity? Heaven or hell?"
- Hebron Church (Intermont, West Virginia) ( nominated by West Virginian) is a mid-19th century Lutheran church in Intermont, Hampshire County, in the U.S. state of West Virginia.
- "Ice" (The X-Files) ( nominated by Grapple X) is the eighth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series The X-Files, which premiered on the Fox network on November 5, 1993. It was directed by David Nutter and written by Glen Morgan and James Wong. The debut broadcast of "Ice" was watched by 10 million viewers in 6.2 million households and received positive reviews from critics, who praised its tense atmosphere.
- Schmerber v. California ( nominated by Notecardforfree) was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States wherein the Court clarified the application of the Fourth Amendment's protection against warrantless searches and the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination for searches that intrude into the human body.
- Yugoslav submarine Nebojša ( nominated by Peacemaker67) was the second of the Hrabri-class diesel-electric submarines built by the Vickers-Armstrong Naval Yard on the River Tyne in the United Kingdom, for the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes (later Yugoslavia) and was launched in 1927. Her design was based on that of the British L-class submarine of World War I, and she was built using parts originally assembled for a Royal Navy L-class submarine that was never built. She was armed with six bow-mounted 533 mm (21 in) torpedo tubes, two 102 mm (4 in) guns and one machine gun, and could dive to 60 metres (200 ft).
- Æthelwulf ( nominated by Dudley Miles) was King of Wessex from 839 to 858. He is regarded as one of the most successful West Saxon kings, who laid the foundations for the success of his son, Alfred the Great.
Featured lists
Six featured lists were promoted this week.
- List of Gloucestershire County Cricket Club grounds ( nominated by AssociateAffiliate and ChrisTheDude) Gloucestershire County Cricket Club, representing the historic county of Gloucestershire, is one of the 18 member clubs of the English County Championship. Gloucestershire have played home matches at eighteen different grounds.
- List of international cricket centuries by Ian Bell ( nominated by Ytfc23 and The Rambling Man) Ian Bell is a cricketer who represents the England cricket team. He has scored centuries (100 or more runs in a single innings) in Test and One Day International (ODI) matches on 22 and 4 occasions respectively. As of August 2015, he has played 115 Tests and 161 ODIs for England, scoring 7,569 and 5,416 runs respectively.
- List of international cricket five-wicket hauls at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium ( nominated by Ssven2) M. A. Chidambaram Stadium (MAC), also known as the Chepauk Stadium or simply Chepauk due its location in the city's locality of Chepauk, is a sports ground in Chennai, India that has hosted international cricket matches along with provincial games. As of September 2015, 30 bowlers have taken 47 Test match five-wicket hauls and two bowlers have taken five-wicket hauls during ODIs at this ground.
- List of international goals scored by Thierry Henry ( nominated by The Rambling Man) Thierry Henry is a retired French international footballer. During his international career he played 123 games for France in which he scored 51 goals. As of October 2015 he is France's top scorer and second in the list of appearances for his country.
- List of local nature reserves in Somerset ( nominated by Rodw) There are 40 local nature reserves in Somerset recognised by Natural England. The smallest is Wellington Basins, which covers 0.53 hectares (1.3 acres) of small ponds and surrounding grassland and woodland. The largest, covering 129.56 hectares (320.1 acres), is Weston Woods on Worlebury Hill, which includes Worlebury Camp Iron Age hill fort.
- List of songs recorded by Lady Gaga ( nominated by FrB.TG, Calvin999, GagaNutella, IndianBio, and SNUGGUMS) American singer and songwriter Lady Gaga has recorded material for four studio albums and three extended plays (EP), and has been featured on songs on other artists' respective albums.
Featured portals
One featured portal was promoted this week.
- Latin music ( nominated by Magiciandude) "Latin music" (Musica latina in Spanish and Portuguese) is a catch-all term used by the music industry to described any music in Spanish mainly from Latin America and Spain regardless of genre.
Featured pictures
Fifty-two featured pictures were promoted this week.-
(created by Hans van Dijk; nominated by User:JJARichardson)
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Princess of Asturias Awards 2015 ceremony
Wikipedia received the 2015 Princess of Asturias Award for global cooperation (see previous Signpost coverage). Here are some photos from the ceremony on October 23.
Tech news in brief
The Tech News weekly summaries help you monitor recent software changes likely to impact you and your fellow Wikimedians. Subscribe, contribute and give feedback.
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- Superprotect has been removed. [1]
- You can now switch between the wikitext editor and the visual editor without saving. You will not lose the changes you have made. [2]
- JSON dumps of the production search indexes are now available. They can be imported to Elasticsearch.
[3]
Problems
- Some translations for the Thanks and Echo extensions were missing. Translators have been asked to help and this should be solved soon. [4]
Changes this week
- Thumbnails of 16-bit TIFF files will be displayed properly. Before, this didn't work. [5]
- The
new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from November 10. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis from November 11. It will be on all Wikipedias from November 12 (
calendar).
Meetings
- You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on
10 November at 19:00 (UTC). See
how to join.
Future changes
- A new tool to navigate through diff pages is being developed. You can test it out and give feedback. [6]
- The options on Special:Watchlist will look slightly different. [7]
Tech news prepared by tech ambassadors and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.